The Gravitational Constant

The Gravitational Constant

The Gravitational Constant is a physical constant, meaning that it is constant through time and space, that measures the attraction between two objects with mass. The constant states that the attractive force between two objects is the product of their masses which is then inverse to the square of the distance they are away from each other meaning that for any two objects with mass they will always have a gravitational pull to each other. The strength of the pull is determined by the distance between the two objects.

This is all related to the Wii remote in the sense that the accelerometer on the Wii mote measures the distance between itself and the ground using a reference which in this case is gravity. Since the Wii mote can tell which way is down it can then generate information telling it how fast the controller was swung judging by the force of gravity acting on it and the distance between itself and the ground. So basically, if you’re playing Wii sports, and you swing the Wii mote to hit a baseball then the accelerometer inside the remote senses the increase in speed and uses the gravitational constant to tell the Wii, via Bluetooth, to hit the ball as hard as you swung the controller.

Of course however the accelerometer has parameters in which it stays inside. For example, say the accelerometer has boundaries of +5 and -5. If -5 is the hardest you can hit the ball then every time you get a homerun you know that the accelerometer has reached-5. It’s the same for the other side. If you bunt, then you know you reached +5.Unfortunately, even if you strapped the Wii mote to a rocket and shot it off you would still only be able to hit a homerun in Wii baseball. Sadly, you would not be able to blast the ball into outer space.